Phil just tweeted this:
Now we know.
Or not.
Then why would they all start putting toes on the line at once? Makes no sense.
Yeah, it sure looks like they’ve all been told to stand on the edge of the mat. Maybe they’re just an extremely polite group of racers.
There’s no way they’d all just do that without being told. Anyone who’s watched the show for a couple seasons knows that you run and then jump on the mat with both feet, at least when you know you’re not dead last.
Is this the first season to shoot in HD? In 4:3 people need to get close to be in the same shot, but in 16:9 there is more room to work with. Maybe it isn’t that they are told to stay back, but they aren’t being told to move in close.
If you think about your usual personal distance, it is probably close to the width of that mat. If you were to jump into the middle of the mat and stay there, it might feel like you were right up in Phil’s face in a situation that warrants a little more distance.
Is it possible that Phil and the Greeter are standing *closer *to the mat than in previous years? That would go along with the ‘personal space’ issue if it’s the case that in previous years the contestants needed to be *on *the mat in order to be standing ‘close enough’.
Actually, it’s the second season in HD, but that makes sense - they probably figured it out halfway through last season, but didn’t want to change things mid-season.
Phil is live-tweeting on the East Coast (just started). He started with: